(Oh yes, and when Uxbridge High Street looked like a proper high street!!)

Brings back great memories thanks; why oh why did we go to diesels ?

Drove the Trolley bus chassis on the AEC test track in the 50's ; inside the plant grounds with a steep hill, `The Dip' , for checking stop / start ability of the vehicles. The acceleration of those old trolley buses was incredible ! 4 ton ballast pig over the rear wheels yet we could spin the wheels even with the built in acceleration limiters on a wet or frosty surface.

I was told by an 'old timer' that the joke was to stop at a particular point at Acton High street on the incline. That point would raise the cables sufficiently for the following tram to lose it's 'wires' when it got to the bottom of the dip

I was told by an 'old timer' that the joke was to stop at a particular point at Acton High street on the incline. That point would raise the cables sufficiently for the following tram to lose it's 'wires' when it got to the bottom of the dip

They some times ` lost' the wires doing the 180 at Hayes End; no joke by the conductors language ! Showers of sparks then the conductor had to haul a L O N G bamboo pole from under the bus; get it vertical and hook the trolleys back under their wires then re stow this awkward pole. ( Toronto Trolleys had lose cords and a hand winch; much easier . )If there was a lot of traffic there was some way they could hook up the lighting batteries and C R E E P the rest of the turn. The batteries often went flat part way round so they had to put the trolleys in place anyway.

My father was once driving in THICK fog (snog) in Bradford with a queue of cars behind him all following him...and each other, hanging on to the tail lights. It was getting hard work for him, so he thought he would pull off, and re-join the queue behind them all and let them lead the way, so he turned off in to a side turning that turned out to be a builders yard and down a short slope.

He was followed by a van and then....a trollybus. It took two days to get the bus out, and thus his car!

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